Horace has, he says, been no slouch in pursuing love, in a poem which comes near the end of the sequence which he intended at the time to mark his farewell from lyric poetry in a new, Roman style based on the Greek greats of the past. As usual, however, Horace includes some uncertainty in what he says by praying to Venus to flick her whip and, just for once, make a recalcitrant woman fall in love.
The illustration of the birth of Venus is a fresco from Pompeii.
Hear Horace’s Latin and follow in English here.